


actions and words

by gladdecease



Category: The Posterchildren - Kitty Burroughs
Genre: Gen, Male-Female Friendship, TPC Secret Santa
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-31
Updated: 2015-12-31
Packaged: 2018-05-10 20:26:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 735
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5599666
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gladdecease/pseuds/gladdecease
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mal isn't very... <em>good</em> at friendship.  He attempts to improve.</p>
            </blockquote>





	actions and words

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tauntedoctopuses](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=tauntedoctopuses).



> A gift for 2015's TPC Secret Santa. My Mal voice is a little out of practice, I'm afraid, but I hope you enjoy!

Mal is not... kind. He is not cruel either - well, not _actively_. Well, not _always_.

So he can be a bit of a jerkwad, sometimes. He tries not to be, for the people that matter. His mother. His father. Ellie. Ernest, Rosario. Their parents. Their partners. His own.

He's not as good at that as he'd like to be, but he's nothing if not capable of improving himself.

* * *

He starts with food.

It makes sense. Zipporah needs to keep her energy up, same as Mal himself - it's a practical thing to do for someone. They've set aside food for each other as part of their role as partners for some time now, so finding a way to make this an overture of friendship is... difficult. He observes her for a time, trying to identify favored food groups or varieties, but the citrus backfires (with a firetruck-red blush) and fast food is not something easily acquired.

He hits upon a variant of the idea one morning in the middle of breakfast with Mother. Rather than offer current favorites, offer to introduce her to new foods. The fare provided at Foundation is nothing like what Mother makes.

This turns out to be the problem. Zipporah is polite - awkward and nervous and speedtalking without realizing, but polite - and tries a little bit of everything, but it's clear she has no taste for chickpeas or lentils or the spices Mother favors. With her Midwestern upbringing it's perhaps unsurprising, if disappointing.

He sighs, frustrated, but only when Zipporah isn't looking.

* * *

Next, reluctantly, is girls.

This is perhaps not Mal's best idea, but the list of common interests he and Zipporah share is... short. An interest in girls, in some respect, is one of them.

Cautiously, he brings up Ellie in conversation. The things he likes about her: how she treats him, how she looks... other things. How hopeless it feels regardless of any reciprocation from her end. How sometimes he just needs to talk about her to someone who understands... does Zip know what that's like?

She doesn't take the hint. Instead, Mal hears second- and third-hand about her small successes and setbacks with Cindy, and while he receives a sympathetic look from Zipporah whenever their path crosses Ellie's, this is not what he was working towards. He grits his teeth and moves on.

* * *

Training.

It's the most logical choice, in the end. They're partners. Training is the path to a mutually desired goal, but again - how to differentiate _friendship_ from partnership? Should he even bother trying to separate one relationship from the other? They will be partners regardless of whether they are friends, so perhaps... or perhaps not.

In any case, despite it being the best option of a limited number, he can think of no new angle or tactic to use to turn training into a friendship activity. Less firm criticism, perhaps, but that would make the training less effective and ultimately defeat the purpose of it.

He fumes over the futility of it all. Without specific interests in common or a shared history to base it on, he has no idea how to form and maintain a friendship. What little camaraderie he's developed with Zipporah seems to have happened without his say, without his understanding or being aware of how it started.

How can he fix something when he doesn't even know how it works?

* * *

Zipporah approaches in a blur of bright colors. After a moment's obvious hesitation, she blurts out, "You've been acting weird lately."

"Weird?"

"Less... crabby." She wrinkles her nose. "But like you still want to be crabby?"

Mal supposes it should be no surprise that she's noticed. "I've been trying to... be a better friend to you."

"Is that what that was?" She vibrates in place, a restrained laugh. "You don't have to do anything special, Mal. I'm friends with you, so if you keep being you, I'm gonna keep being your friend. That's how it works!"

"Even when I'm cruel or rude to you?"

She shrugs. "I'm not always super nice either, y'know." She punches his shoulder gently. "Besides, if you weren't crabby _some_ of the time, I don't think I'd recognize you!"

Mal sighs. Futile for another reason altogether, then. "Very well." He takes her arm and adjusts her positioning. "If that's your idea of a punch, I'm going to be _very_ crabby about how little you've learned from our training."


End file.
